ABSTRACT
Creative industries need cultural resources such as creative and talented people. Japanese animation and video games in particular are forms of entertainment shared by young people around the world. Japan is steadily becoming a soft power middleweight, owing mainly to the recent world popularity of Japanese pop culture. Just look at the number of people worldwide who have taken an interest in the Japanese language. Making Japan's economy and society wide open to the world, the Vision says, would increase vitality through the free and active exchange of goods, people, capital, and culture. Looking at the overall domestic culture market in a broad sense, one cannot recognize the expansion of Japan's cultural power. This chapter also includes patent royalties in the amount of cultural exports because the growth of patent royalties means the diffusion and popularization of Japanese brands, and it sometimes reflects exports of innovative or creative technologies.
